In connection with internal combustion engines intended for, for example, motor vehicles, cooling of the different engine components is usually required. In an earlier known kind of internal combustion engine, the cylinders are arranged in line or in a V-shape in a cast cylinder block. On the outside of the cylinders there is a cooling channel which forms a casing where a cooling medium, which is usually water or a glycol mixture, can flow in order to cool the cylinder block. In this previously known internal combustion engine, the cooling water is supplied from a water pump, and into the cylinder block. After the cooling water has passed the cylinders, it is led to the cylinder head, where it is used to cool other parts of the engine, for example the exhaust and inlet valves of the cylinder head.
Although the above described cooling of the cylinder block in principle functions satisfactorily, there is a problem since the cooling might have a tendency to become uneven. This is particularly noticeable in those engines where the cylinder block is manufactured in aluminum using press casting. This is due to the fact that this method of manufacturing limits the possibilities of tailoring the castings (and thereby also the cooling channel) in such a way that the castings cannot always be given for example the desired thickness and shape in all the places where this is desirable. It is, for example, not possible using this casting method to shape the cylinder block with sharp edges and thin passages wherever desired in the castings. Because of this, the shape of the cooling channel cannot usually be optimized with regard to the cooling of the cylinder block, which in turn leads to different parts of the cylinder block being cooled to varying extents. This leads to a non-optimal cooling where there, in some cases, might be a risk of deformation in the material in the cylinder block.
There is thus a need for a more active control of the flow of the cooling medium in the cooling channel around the cylinders, which would create the possibility of a more even and more optimal cooling of the cylinder block.
There are previously known arrangements, the purpose of which being to accomplish improved cooling of an internal combustion engine. An arrangement which comprises control means for controlling the cooling medium in a cylinder block is previously known from EP 0 261 506. This arrangement comprises a plurality of "turbulence sheets", which are intended to be installed on each cylinder in an engine. The turbulence sheets are arranged to control the flow of the cooling medium so that a more optimal cooling is obtained.
This known arrangement, however, causes a problem in that it is a relatively complicated solution, which requires the installing of the above mentioned turbulence sheets on all of the cylinders in the internal combustion engine, which is time-demanding and costly.
There is thus a need to solve this problem and to accomplish a more cost efficient solution which, in particular, allows a simple, quick, and efficient installation on the cylinder block.